The present invention relates to toys and games that simulate sporting events. In particular, the present invention provides a ball-based game that incorporates a means for determining the ball""s height as it is tossed substantially vertically.
Sporting event simulations allow players to experience a wide variety of sports and to become more involved with sports of which they are fans. Many people have neither the talent nor the desire to devote the time necessary to achieve a high level of athletic proficiency. Additionally, for some people, such as the handicapped, participation in many sports is impossible.
The use of devices to simulate sports play is a long-standing concept. Early games developed to simulate sports have include arcade-type games such as air-hockey, batting cages, and basketball hoop-shooting games. In addition, games with no direct analog to sports have been used to simulate the rules of various sporting events, such as the use of dart boards and lawn darts to simulate baseball and golf-type rules in order to give the player a feeling that they were actually playing the underlying sporting event.
More recently, video games have been developed that allow a player to simulate sporting events without physically playing a sport. Existing video games include titles which simulate virtually every sport, including football, soccer, baseball, basketball, hunting, fishing, skiing, martial arts, hockey, boxing, and rowing. Video games allow participants to control virtual players through the use of various input devices such as joysticks, keyboards, trackballs, and control pads.
The present invention provides another method for simulating various sports by using a ball having a means for detecting its altitude in relation to the player or, in the alternative, a means for detecting its position relative to a fixed plane or reference point.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a game ball system including a ball; a means for position sensing for determining the position of the ball and for producing information representing the position of the ball; an input device to receive user input; a processor communicatively connected with the means for position sensing and the input device to receive the information representing the position of the ball from the means for position sensing, to receive the user input from the input device, and to process the information representing the position of the ball and the user input according to a set of game rules to generate game output messages; and an output device communicatively connected with the processor to receive output game messages therefrom, and to present the messages in a user-understandable form. In operation, when a user tosses the ball upward, the processor receives a combination of user input and information about the position of the ball, and processes them according to a set of game rules, providing feedback to the user regarding the game in the form of output messages provided by the output device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an input device therein which further comprises a means for receiving game rules, and wherein the processor uses game rules inputted through the input device to control the behavior of the game.
It is another object of the present invention to incorporate the means for position sensing, the input device, the processor, and the output device into the ball.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an altimeter as the means for position sensing, and to incorporate it into the ball.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means for position sensing selected from the group consisting of an altimeter, a camera/object recognition device, and a plurality of motion sensors disposed vertically along a wall.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an output device selected from the group consisting of an audio output device, a digital readout, and a plurality of lights.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a means for receiving game rules from a cartridge-type media.
It is still another object of the present invention that the processor generates game information, and wherein the system further comprises a persistent memory communicatively connected with the processor to store game information between games. It is also desirable that the game information includes player statistics and that a user may affect the storage of game information between games via the input device.
It is another object of the present invention that the means for position sensing includes a plurality of motion sensors disposed at varying heights, and where the ball is configured to trigger the motion sensors when it is tossed through one of the varying heights, and to register the greatest height reached with the processor, and where each of the varying heights represents a game event.
It is another object of the present invention that the means for position sensing is a camera/object recognition device positioned to view the ball as a user tosses it, to recognize the ball, to determine the height to which the ball is tossed, and to provide output including the height to which the ball is tossed.
It is still another object of the present invention that the means for position sensing is configured to determine the ball""s height relative to a ceiling and to determine if the ball has impacted the ceiling.